Adventures in Art, Decorating, Cooking, and Gardening

Menu

Monthly Archives: November 2012

This was such a simple drawing, yet I found these morning glories quite challenging to paint. Challenging = difficult, which usually means it was a learning experience, and that’s a good thing. This painting was based on a drawing lesson from Janet Whittle’s book, “How to Draw Exotic Flowers in Simple Steps.”

What’s better than a Thanksgiving dinner where you don’t have to cook? Returning home with a bag full of delicious leftovers so you can create another fabulous meal. A big thank you to my brother and his wife for hosting the holiday meal and for sharing their leftovers with me so I could make home-made chicken pot pie–one of my daughter’s favorite recipes.

The beauty of chicken pot pie is that you can toss all your Thanksgiving leftovers into this dish–green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, gravy, corn pudding, stuffing, you name it–and it always turns out fabulous. That’s that mark of a good recipe. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make chicken pot pie:

In a large skillet, saute the celery, onions, carrots, and potatoes in butter until soft (about 10-15 minutes), stirring occasionally so the vegetables don’t brown. Stir in the flour, gravy or chicken broth, half-and-half, chicken or turkey pieces, poultry seasoning, and salt. Pour mixture into a greased baking dish. Top with a home-made pie pastry (recipe below). Don’t use a store-bought crust; it’s easy to make a home-made crust and it tastes so much better. Come on, you can do it; I’ll walk you through it.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter until the shortening pieces resemble small peas. Add ice water and stir to combine (use your hands if you prefer). Do not over mix, over work, or over stretch the dough when fitting it into the pan or it will shrink during baking and become tough. Form the dough into a ball and roll it between two sheets of waxed paper (this keeps your counters and roller clean and no additional flour is necessary). Fold the dough into quarters. Place on top of the baking dish; unfold. Turn raw edges under. Crimp edges between your thumb and fore fingers or use a fork.

Make at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges.

Doesn’t this look delish? You can see that I added leftover peas and corn pudding, too. Give this chicken pot pie recipe a try and let me know what you think.

What’s better than Thanksgiving dinner? Being a guest at your brother’s house, so all you have to do is show up and eat. And what a feast he and his wife prepared: baked chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, and corn pudding. I couldn’t show up and not bring something to the table, so I whipped up this baked Santa Fe cheese dip. I’ve been making this appetizer for years. With two types of cheese, green chilies, corn, and chipotle peppers, this dip is not only easy to assemble, it’s a real crowd pleaser. Five minutes after arriving at my brother’s house, this is all that was left:

My sister-in-law said, “this stuff is dangerous,” and she’s right. It’s impossible to stop eating it once you take a bite. So you’ve been forewarned. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this delicious appetizer:

As usual, I’ve revised the recipe to suit my taste. I love chipotle peppers, so I added way more than the original recipe called for. I also increased the amount of cheese, corn, and cilantro. If you’d like a milder version, you can get the original recipe here.

In a large bowl, combine cheese, mayonnaise, corn, green chilies, chopotle peppers, and garlic powder. Spread into a 9 x 13″ baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Combine tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Spoon mixture down the center of the hot dip. Serve with vegetable dippers or tortilla chips.

This dish is so easy and so good. Be prepared to share the recipe and be asked to contribute it to pot luck dinners frequently.

There’s nothing my daughter loves more than spending time at the barn with her beloved horses. So I thought I’d share some photos of Thanksgiving at the farm. Simple pleasures are the best. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

The drive to the barn:

View of the pastures:

Greta’s horse, Abbott:

Greta’s horse, Erin:

Greta riding Erin:

Katie, the mule:

Napoleon, the miniature horse:

Greta’s new horse trailer (just delivered this week):

Steve at the barn:

What a wonderful way to spend the day. It’s easy to see why my daughter spends so much time here.

While my daughter was painting her lovely orange tulips, I worked on these morning glories. This is a redo of these morning glories that I worked on last week:

I decided the yellow and turquoise background was too distracting and wanted to try a more monochrome painting. I also changed the proportion of some of the petals and glazed the flowers with blue. Which painting do you prefer?

Like this:

My daughter painted these cheerful orange tulips during our joint painting session earlier this evening. How fabulous are they? I love the color scheme and the series of lines and dots drawn in micron pen that she used to shade the flowers and leaves. This painting was based on a photo I found on Paint My Photo.

Here’s a photo of her painting before the addition of the details in micron pen:

She wanted me to ask my readers if the painting was better with or without the micron pen details. I say it’s better with the dots and lines. What say you all?

I spent the evening painting with my daughter, listening to Christmas and classical music, and sipping peach iced tea. I love spending time with my daughter. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening.

Top Posts & Pages

Copyright notice

All of the artwork, photography, and content on this blog are protected under US Copyright Law and may not be reproduced or used without written consent of the blog owner. To obtain permission or for licensing information email afternoonartist@gmail.com.